Few places in the world have as much of a feeling of anti-climax as Las Vegas on a Sunday morning. Over the course of the preceding week, everything builds to a Saturday night crescendo and then, quietly, frequently nursing sore heads, it seems like half the town heads for the airport or just hunkers down in the shade.
After a night like last Saturday night, the relative quiet seems all the more palpable.
It was quite the evening on the Strip and its environs. Barbara Streisand at the MGM Grand. Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and others performing Comic Relief for Hurricane Katrina at Caesars Palace. And, a little to the east of Las Vegas Boulevard, two guys called Erik and Manny put on one hell of a show for as long as the action lasted.
The crowd was, not for the first time at a Pacquiao-Morales event, truly astonishing: huge, boisterous, partisan but good-natured, and almost insanely loud. It was loud enough for the first Filipino-Mexican meeting of the evening, between Brian Viloria and Omar Nino, but by the time of the main event, it was positively deafening.
Let there be no doubt about the appeal of either Morales or, especially, Pacquiao. The announced crowd of 18,276 was second at the Thomas & Mack only to the 1992 bout between Julio Cesar Chavez and Hector Camacho, and the 19,000 who attended that fight included 2,000 who bought standing room only tickets. The astonishing 370 credentialed media was by far the greatest number ever at the arena. Given that the Thomas & Mack has hosted such major bouts at Lennox Lewis-Evander Holyfield II, and Roy Jones-John Ruiz, that?s saying something.
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You have to figure that Manny Pacquiao is Fighter of the Year after his tremendous 2006. Two knockout victories over Erik Morales, surely ending Morales? career in the process. And a knockout win over Oscar Larios sandwiched in between. But more than a few voices in the post-fight press conference were questioning whether even that was enough of an honor, and whether in fact it is not time to consider Pacquiao as the number one pound-for-pound fighter in the world. Certainly, he should be clearly and unequivocally ranked ahead of Winky Wright. The only question remains: the peerless skills of Floyd Mayweather, jr., or the relentless attack of Manny Pacquiao?
Let the debate begin.
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With the fight over, several media members were more interested in quizzing Pacquiao and Arum about the Filipino?s contractual status. Arum announced that a new, US-based company representing Pacquiao, MP Promotions, had signed a four-year deal with Top Rank, and that the contract Pacquiao had signed with Golden Boy Promotions was invalid, as Arum?s existing deal with the Pacman, although it covered only the Morales bout, precluded the fighter from signing any other deals.
That one seems certain to go to court, although Arum seems confident of being able to at least slow down GBP?s relentless march toward signing just about every major star in the sport. So, too, does Gary Shaw, who has sent around to various interested parties a copy of his contract with Diego ?Chico? Corrales, which he claims remains valid, despite Corrales signing with GBP. Sources told TigerBoxing that Chico had not only signed the contract, but initialed every page. Shaw apparently intends to sue for breach of contract, and also sue Shane Mosley for alleged defamation. Mosley, a partner in Golden Boy, is said to have been the one who persuaded Corrales to sign with his company, at a dinner the night of Corrales? loss to Joel Casamayor; he later said in interviews that, with Golden Boy, Corrales would get the money he was due?implying, says Shaw, that Shaw was somehow withholding payment.
This one could get real ugly.
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In my section of press row, there was some dissatisfaction with the scoring of two of the principal undercard bouts. Most of us had Mike Arnaoutis a fairly comfortable winner over Ricardo Torres (who in fact was given the split decision nod) in their WBO 140 lb. title tilt, and gave Brian Viloria victory over Omar Nino by a couple of points. But, realistically, neither was a robbery. Several rounds in both fights were close, and I know that I for one allowed my concentration to wander at time during Arnaoutis-Torres. Meanwhile, some others at different locations in the media section saw it in similar ways to the official scorers, so however much I and my immediate companions (MaxBoxing?s Doug Fischer and Steve Kim, and Vegas handicapper Dave ?The Thermometer? Cokin) might have thought otherwise, the fights were clearly close.
Both losers really have only themselves to blame. Arnaoutis hurt Torres badly when he dropped him with a counter left hand in round seven, and then, astonishingly, when Torres rose, he actually touched gloves with him, and then took his foot off the gas, easing through the final rounds. Similarly, although Viloria fought far batter against Nino than when he weakly surrendered his title to him in August, he still fought in bursts and failed to utilize a jab?and, like Arnaoutis, gave away the fight by unnecessarily surrendering the final rounds on all three scorecards.
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Pacquiao and Morales bookended a Las Vegas boxing year that, while not exactly a classic, certainly had its classic moments. Aside from their two epic battles, there was Oscar De La Hoya?s regal destruction of Ricardo Mayorga, the shock last-round knockout of Hasim Rahman by Oleg Maskaev, and the pier ten brawl and near-riot during the Floyd Mayweather-Zab Judah bout. There were also the acceptable if not exactly earth-shattering evenings headlined by Shane Mosley-Fernando Vargas I and II, Joel Casamayor and Diego Corrales, and Mayweather?s domination of Carlos Baldomir. The best three nights? Clearly Pacquiao-Morales II and III, and De La Hoya-Mayorga. The worst? By some stretch, Marco Antonio Barrera-Rocky Juarez II.
The Las Vegas fight calendar kicks off in 2007 on January 20, when Ricky Hatton fights Juan Urango, and Jose Luis Castillo meets Herman Ngoudjo, on the corner of the Strip and Flamingo Road, at Paris Las Vegas. Assuming both Hatton and Castillo win, they would then square off later in the year.
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Host hotel for the fight, as it has been for the last several Top Rank cards, was the Wynn Las Vegas. Wynn has stepped into the breach for Top Rank since Arum?s company and the MGM Mirage group (which owns the MGM Grand and Mandalay Bay) have seen their once-beautiful relationship hit the skids over MGM?s habit of doing business with Golden Boy Promotions. Because the Wynn does not have an arena of its own, Wynn-sponsored events are always at the Thomas & Mack, which means shuttling back and forth through Saturday night Strip traffic. This time, the inconvenience was magnified by the fact that the press conference and weigh-in were also at the Thomas & Mack, instead of at the Wynn. The reason? One of the event?s sponsors was online gaming company pokerstars.net, and Wynn refused to allow any banners with that company?s name on its property. (adding insult to injury, during the presser, Arum mistakenly thanked partypoker.net, an entirely different online gaming company, to anguished howls from the representatives of the actual sponsors).
And, on a final, Las Vegas casino-related note: The Stardust, one of the great old remaining Strip casinos, across the street from the Wynn, is no more. It closed its doors on November 1, and this past weekend saw a mass auction of everything from poker chips to craps tables and showgirl costumes.
Pity. Progress can never be halted, and the quality of the new breed of super casino is vastly greater than that of, frankly, fairly dingy establishments like the Stardust. But still, with the Stardust?s departure, another vestige of one of the city?s previous golden ages (or at least, its last Mafia-run spell) will disappear.
The bigger pity is that the casino?s giant neon sign is being donated to a museum. It would have looked perfect on my front lawn ?
